The US publicly told its partners on the Security Council that it would consider each draft resolution on its merit, but says that it never indicated how it would vote– up until the vote itself. WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration insists it was disciplined in its silence over how it would ultimately vote on resolutions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that ultimately reached the UN Security Council, where it holds veto power. Hours before such a vote was set to take place– on a resolution condemning Israel's settlement activity– one senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post that the president's...

But who's likely ever to believe anything written by Steve Bannon about whom someone famously said: "When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind"? Welcome to your shaky new status, Steven Bannon: ‘King of #MeToo Trump Backstabbers’. Rather than the New York Post headlining ‘Et Tu Bannon’, the literary world would be writing “Et Tu, Brutus” were it not for the misery that there is no literary world anymore, only mostly trash writers like Hillary Clinton and Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House author Michael Wolff. No one more eagerly awaited Bannon’s...

The leaders of the 28 members of the European Union are showing their support for the Iran nuclear agreement, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s opposition to it. EU spokesman Preben Aaman tweeted that the EU leaders agreed at a summit Thursday to show their joint commitment to the international agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear program. The EU leaders called the 2015 deal a pillar of efforts to reduce the global nuclear threat. Some fear that walking away from the deal could compromise chances of encouraging North Korea to negotiate on its nuclear program. …

Senators went into a recess skeptical over whether they could agree to legislation repealing and replacing ObamaCare. They will return on Monday more doubtful than ever. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), one of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) most loyal allies, said Thursday that it’s “unlikely” the GOP will get a healthcare deal. “I don’t see a comprehensive healthcare plan this year,” he told a local news station. Senate Republicans hoped to have a draft bill this week, but it now looks like there will at best be an outline.

So much has been said recently about the rivalry between the House Freedom Caucus and a group called “The Tuesday Group,” a group of largely unnamed so-called “moderates” in the House. The leadership of the Tuesday Group is named, and some members willingly speak to reporters about their agenda. The group boasts of a membership of somewhere between 40 and 50 members, but only a few have outed themselves as part of the secretive backroom group. The most vocal member is one of the co-chairs named Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvanian Republican whose liberty score reveals that he votes liberal 72%...

Washington (CNN) â€“ Just five weeks into Donald Trump's presidency, Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have already proven to be major headaches for the new President. While many of their Republican colleagues in Congress have worked to make inroads with the new administration, hoping to capitalize on GOP control over two branches of government, the two senators have repeatedly broken with the White House. McCain has accused Trump of running an "administration in disarray." Graham called his budget proposal "dead on arrival" on Capitol Hill. Now, the two are set to make their case to a national audience...

Despite hurricane-force media hype that Donald Trump’s locker room talk over a decade ago precludes him from the presidency, the GOP base is ignoring its leadership and standing by Donald Trump. A poll by Politico shows: A wave of Republican officials abandoned Donald Trump on Saturday, but, at least for now, rank-and-file Republicans are standing by the party's presidential candidate, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted immediately after audio was unearthed Friday that had the GOP nominee crudely bragging about groping women and trying to lure a married woman into an affair. Overall, fewer than four-in-10 voters --...

Donald Trump has held photo ops with his National Hispanic Advisory Council and in recent weeks boasted about his increasing support from this crucial voting demographic. But that was before his speech on immigration this week. On Thursday, several who sit on the council announced their resignation, citing Trump's refusal to truly listen to their views on immigration reform. Jacob Monty, a Houston-based immigration lawyer who was a member of the council, said in a Facebook post that he gave Trump a plan that would "improve border security, remove hardened criminal aliens and most importantly, give work authority to millions...

The U.S. Senate’s first spending bill of 2016 spends more than President Barack Obama requested and lacks significant conservative amendments, but it still sailed to passage in the Republican-led Senate Thursday. An overwhelming number of U.S. senators on both sides of the aisle approved the energy and water development appropriations bill by a vote of 90-8. Conservatives had objected to the higher spending levels and lack of policy riders in the weeks leading up to the vote.

Kasich and Cruz quietly work to persuade delegates to break with GOP voters in a contested convention. When South Dakota's Republican activists convened in Pierre to pick their delegates to the Republican national convention, they got an unexpected visitor. Merle Madrid, senior aide to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, had flown in from Columbus to make an appeal: If the convention fails to elect front-runner Donald Trump on the first ballot, consider Kasich on the second — even if the state’s Republican voters sent them there to back Trump or Ted Cruz. Madrid was polite and earnest , but according to...

A group of conservative activists huddled behind closed doors Thursday at a Washington hotel to plot strategy to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump , including calling for a unity ticket to oppose him and a floor fight at the GOP convention to deny him the nomination. The meeting was led by conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson, a longtime outspoken critic of Mr. Trump . “We believe that the issue of Donald Trump is greater than an issue of party. It is an issue of morals and character that all Americans, not just those of us in the conservative movement,...

The Trump-bashers are starting up a list of conservative supporters of Donald Trump — so that they can blackball these Trump supporters. The list was initiated by Cruz supporter Amanda Carpenter who is usually kind and intelligent but now suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

(CNN) â€”Donald Trump, defying skeptics and overcoming an avalanche of mockery from establishment Republicans, has extended his streak as the party's presidential frontrunner for almost five months. With the Iowa caucuses less than two months away, Republican leaders are growing deeply alarmed by Trump's resilience. Anxious that his lead may not fade before the voting starts, GOP strategists have begun to brace for a long and painful nomination fight, with Trump's opponents hoping to grind him down over a period of months. In a new CNN/ORC poll released Friday, Trump leads the GOP field of White House hopefuls at 36%...

When asked who he would vote for if the presidential race comes down to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the former mayor of Los Angeles and a longtime Republican establishment figure, Dick Riordan, says: "I would probably go find a deserted island." "I think Hillary is disgusting," said Riordan, a wealthy investor who has exceeded $500,000 in political donations throughout his career. "And I think Trump is crazy," Riordan added in a telephone interview Monday. Riordan is not alone. In conversations over the past month, GOP establishment donors have confided to The Hill that for the first time in recent...

'They want a puppet that they can control, Donald will never be that person' Although Donald Trump has signed a pledge to support the Republican Party's nominee, that doesn't mean the party's establishment will support him, should he win the GOP presidential nod. A report by the Hill suggests the big money Republican donors are actually looking to support Hillary Clinton for commander in chief if Trump is at the top of the GOP ticket. Yes, the Democrat Hillary Clinton could be getting millions of dollars from Republicans. The website says: "In conversations over the past month, GOP establishment donors...

New Hampshire GOP chairwoman Jennifer Horn has abandoned all pretext of impartiality by launching an aggressive attack against Donald Trump. In an interview with the Boston Globe Horn says: "Shallow campaigns that depend on bombast and divisive rhetoric do not succeed in New Hampshire, and I donâ€™t expect that they will now." She went on to say that establishment candidates like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio are "underestimated" and will almost certainly perform better than most. This despite their disappointing poll numbers, both nationally and in her state: "People are probably underestimating [New Jersey Governor] Chris Christie. And,...

Much like the 1960s comedy "Get Smart," GOP establishment operatives and candidates have formed their own version of "KAOS," the evil organization that continually tried to "get" Agent Maxwell Smart. Except in this case, it's many Republican traditionalists that are trying to "get" Donald Trump. These efforts will backfire on them, as did the best attempts at mischief by KAOS in the comedy classic. To fully comprehend how off-base the pundits and establishment consultants are about the 2016 race for the GOP presidential nomination, let's first examine a tale of two polls taken in Florida recently. The first was conducted...

It should be clear by now to anybody paying attention that Donald Trump long ago determined that the traditional concepts of "true" and "false" have no relevance when he decides what words to let fly from his mouth. Even for Trump, though, the last few weeks have presented a stunning parade of howlers, fibs, falsehoods and fabrications - also known as lies. The thing about Trump is that he's so blase about lying, and does it so frequently, that people tend to forget how many made-up facts they've heard from him. Sometimes, it's instructive to make a list of his...

The F-word: CNN's MJ Lee has a useful round-up of Republicans who are deciding to unite around the "fascist" label. As she points out, a number of prominent voices in the Republican race have decided it's an appropriate way to characterize Trump's rhetoric. One is Max Boot, an adviser to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who tweeted that Trump deserved the label: